


A Happenstance of Curious Design.

by purpleSilversmith



Series: Where Madness and Mystery Might Meet [1]
Category: Original Work, Starting My Own
Genre: Amnesia, Amnesic genius, Complete and Utter Confusion, Death, F/M, Foster Care, Heaps of side characters, Homelessness, Immortals, Longtime youth solo survival (homelessness), Mafia relations, Manipulation, More tags likely to be added, Mysterious Origins, Original story and characters, short story collection
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-09
Updated: 2017-01-22
Packaged: 2018-09-03 00:03:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8688811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purpleSilversmith/pseuds/purpleSilversmith
Summary: Short story rambling: a couple of characters meet, interact, and figure out how do deal and/or simply interact with each other. Heaps of fun to be had, as well as fighting, arguing, and running away for the sake of living to see another day.Not necessarily in order at any given time, but hopefully interesting none the less.





	1. Piipa and Sören

**Author's Note:**

> This is one short story (which turns out to be longer than I thought it originally was? Ah well.) of many, all of which are mostly for my own benefit of seeing how I'll piece character's personalities together, as well as a basis for more actual set-in-stone backstory. This one is just about the Immortals Sören and his Great-something Grandmother Piipa. Not really any kind of plot, just a 'for kicks and giggles' scene.
> 
> If you decide to read this drabble of mine, please let me know if I made any spelling, grammar, or overall sentence structure mistakes. Thanka! :•)

A young, only twelve centuries old Sören nervously brings up a long, flat object wrapped in a thick, cream coloured cloth to his eternally youthful, ‘Greatest' Grandmother Piipa and sets it down on her lap.

“Sorry Grandma Pip. I didn’t mean to break it. I was just using it to chase off the bad guys, and I accidentally broke it.”

“Oh so it was the 'bad guys' huh? What were you using to do that?” Piipa looks down at the loosely wrapped object in her lap casually for a moment, then unwraps the cloth from around the object, revealing a broken teal, silver, and green sword. Her eyes widen slightly.

“I’m really sorry Grandma.” Sören says sadly looking from the broken sword, down to his feet.

“... You broke my sword. How the heck did you manage to break this thing Sören?” Piipa asks, honestly dumbfounded.

“Well I-”

“That was made out of the toughest metal I ever created. It was supposed to be unbreakable, only manipulatable by me. And it’s missing a teensy chunk.” She says, piecing the sword back together in her mind before she looks at Soren with minutely playful, slightly narrowed eyes.

Sören’s eyes widen slightly and stiffens. “Uhm, yeah about that-”

Piipa chuckles and waves him off. “No biggie. I figure that—since it is you that we’re talking about—you probably got some good idea and made something out of it. Which is, of course, a credit to ya since I was the only one who was supposed to be able to make anything with this kind of metal.” Sören blushes a little. “So you better have made something good with it kiddo, or else I’ll toss you in your mother’s puzzle planet.”

Sören pales and and laughs nervously.

“And,” Piipa continues with a mischievous grin, “I’ll not let you out till you’ve solved them all, and come up with something better to do with the scrap remains of my best sword. We clear, Sören?”

“Yeah- uhm, I mean, yes ma’am. We’re clear.” He goes silent for a moment, then in an instant, looks up at Piipa wide eyed. “But hey! Wanna see what I made with it though Greatest Grandma Piip?” He grins excitedly. “I think that it’s pretty cool.” “Sure-” “Oh but I’m not as good at making things as you are, so it’s not as cool as your stuff. So you have to promise me that you won’t throw me into my mum’s puzzle planet. Otherwise I can’t show you. Okay?” He grins cheekily.

Piipa chuckles as they begin to walk out of Piipa's many realms, into a vast emptiness. “Clever kid. And what are you even talking about Sören? Your stuff is super cool. But sure, I promise I won’t chuck you into your mum’s puzzle planet. Now let me see what you’ve made this time around. Then we’ll see if I want you to try and make another for me with the rest of that sword.”

Sören pouts. “Of course I can make another one. Just who do you think I am?”

"Oh, just the Immortal of Technology, Science, and Inventions." Piipa grins as she messes with his wavy strawberry-blond hair. "And with the super sweet subdivision of Nature."

He giggles and tries to pull her hand off of his head. "Grandma Piip! Mum's going to chase me to Hasekel's chaos universes if she finds out my 'perfectly fixed' hair she worked on got all messed up! And besides," he crosses his arms with a huff. "You're the First Immortal  _and_  the Immortal of Reality, Blacksmithing, and Creation. You don't even  _need_  a subdivision. I'm not that great."

"It's true, those are my domains and I'm the First," Piipa shrugs. "But that doesn't mean that you're not just as cool, if not cooler, than I am. You're unique in your own way, kiddo. You've got plenty of potential to boot. You'll be over powering me in no time if you keep up your inventing. I have no doubts."

Sören looks up at her skeptically. "No one in the later generations have been able to match you in power and skill in domains, Greatest Grandma Piip. Not even the other Immortals in the First Generation have been quite able to match you in  _either_  of those ways. Or any that I can see anyways. You must be kidding if you think I can pull up over your level and they haven't."

Piipa tilts her head slightly as she looks at the young Immortal with a blank face. A grin slowly creeps across her face. "Sören... No one has had any competitions or ever really compared abilities in power or domains before... You invented something to show you everyone's present capabilities, didn't you?"

Sören freezes. "Uhm... No?"

The First Immortal laughs. "Sören, you're an awful lier."

The strawberry-blond boy blushes and looks down at his toes again. "I know..." He mumbles bashfully, red and gold eyes welling up lightly with pale orange liquid. "Everyone says that."

Piipa takes a recovering breath and looks down at the youngling softly. "Yeah, it's a good quality of yours kiddo. Don't get down on yourself because of it. Anyways, I think we're almost to your realm now? Care to show me your latest works with my broken sword?"

Attempting to discretely wipe the tears from his eyes, he nods and steps up to one of the many open doorway-like entrances of his domain. Pausing, Sören looks back at Piipa and frowns slightly before holding out his hand. "Uhm, Grandma Piip. You, well, I need you to hold my hand while we go in. I... I set up some, erm, precautions a while back so that people can't get in besides myself, unless I personally let them in. And, ah, it'll be faster if you just hold my hand for a little bit." He blushes as she raises an eyebrow at him. "Please?"

Taking the young Immortal's hand, Piipa leans down a bit so she can talk quietly into his ear. "I'll take your hand, but I do want to know exactly  _why_  you decided these precautions were necessary. As well as what will happen if someone attempts to get in without permission. Alrighty?"

Sören nods and swallows nervously. "Yes Piip." He responds softly.

Giving his hand a soft squeeze, Piipa nods gently. "It's alright Sör. Lets just go in for now, okay?"

"Mhm." He hums cautiously and lifts his free hand, just barely not touching the opening in front of himself and muttering something under his breath. A ripple moves out from his fingers and the doorway glamour washes away, revealing a multicoloured, vortex looking sphere, covered in tiny keyholes.

"Well that is  _complex_  Sören." Piipa mumbles softly in awe. "It's not an easy task, locking a portal vortex loop this many times over and keeping it in a spherical shape."

Nodding slightly, the youngling creates a bracelet of keys in his palm and pops off a few, inserting them in a few different places and only turning one. Concentrating even more than before, he slips in one more key where no keyhole appears and turns it. The previously fitted keys all turn in random directions before starting to glow, sending out a bright orange light around first the portal, then Sören, and finally Piipa. With a quick tug, Sören pulls Piipa and himself through the sphere and into his workshop.

"Tada!" Sören supplies weakly as he lets go of Piipa's hand.

 "Well," Piip looks around the slightly cluttered and spacious work room. Noting the seemingly random splashes of colour and machinery, she turns to take in her full surroundings and nods approvingly. Taking inventory of a couple scraps in the corner, she turns back to the workbench and absently begins analyzing the area for any kind of obviously dangerous items. "You're certainly not lacking in the creativity and organization areas. That's for sure, kiddo."

The young Immortal relaxes slightly as a ghost of a grin creeps up on to his face and he looks around the room. "Thanks. It don't think I notice it too much, I'm always working on something and when it's finished I just make some other way to store it or give it a home somewhere else." He pauses as he notices Piipa walking over to one of his work benches. "Wait! Stop, don't move a muscle!" He shouts in an alarmed rush.

Piipa freezes in place, taking a quick glance back at her 'grandson' before actually trying to locate any kind of danger in front of her. "... What's the problem kiddo? I'm not seeing anything set up that could be potentially dangerous."

 "Well, that's kinda the point?" Sören sighs softly. "Just move back slowly so you don't trigger it, and I'll show you how it works. Please?" 

Carefully complying, the woman slowly reverses her steps until she is once again standing next to the intelligent youngling. Watching him closely, she notices a soft slump of relief in Sören's posture before he moves off to the side and flicks a series of different levers. With a sudden sound of knives ricocheting off of each other, a pile of glittering needles become visible and fall to the ground.

After a moment of silence, Piipa turns to Sören expectantly. "You were saying something about explaining all of this?" She gestures to the needles, along with a general sweep to the rest of the workplace.

"Ah, right." He sighs dejectedly and sits on a stool beside him. "... You want me to tell you about a lot of things, huh?"

"Mhm. You've got that right kiddo." Piipa pulls a nearby chair over and sits down on it backwards, facing Sören. "What's with all of these... destructive-like inventions Sör?"

"Uhm. Well. You see, ah," he scrunches his white shirt in his hands.

"It's okay Sör." Piipa tells him softly, reaching out and gently placing a callused hand on his knee. "You can tell me."

With a sniffle, the youngest Immortal rubs his eyes with a frown and looks up fiercely at Piipa. "They don't like me. My cousins—Xan and Hattlen—they, they don't like me. They tease me and pull apart my things that I made. Sometimes I say something and tell them to stop, and that's when they start to hit me. I-" Sören takes a slow, jumpy breath and tries to go again. "I don't want to fight," he begins quietly. "So, I made things that would make s-sure they couldn't t-touch me."

Nodding slowly, Piipa ruffles the kid's hair softly, concealing the explosive concern about what had happened to him as well as what his inventions might be capable of. "So what would the vortex do if you tried to force your way in?" She asks slowly with a gentle tone.

"It, it would... knock you out." Sören begins, picking his words out slowly and carefully. "For a... long time. And then when you... woke up again, it would teleport you to one of Hasekel's planets."

"Ah." Piipa nods again. Immediately making a mental note to sort out what words little Sör was deciding to censor out. "Then what about the trap I almost walked into? The one with the needle looking things? That one was so good I couldn't even see it!" She puts on a grin, because even if it was for less than kind purposes, it really is no small task to hide a part of reality from the  _Immortal of the same realm._

Smiling ever so slightly, Sören shrugs a bit before speaking a little bit more confidently. "That one is to stop anyone besides myself from touching my things unless I give a specific verbal command. That, or temporarily shut it down. But I learned recently about a mortal thing where their bodies have things called 'pressure points' that you can use to heal, or immobilize them instantly! Or something like that anyways. So I made these needles to have a similar effect, only on Immortals instead. But I left them on their aggressive mode, so I made you stop so that I was able to turn them off, so you wouldn't be immobilized."

Piipa looks at Sören, unable to conceal all of the shock from hearing this news. "Well. I was not expecting that as an answer, Sör. That's for sure. But what exactly do you mean by 'immobilize' Immortals?"

Wincing a little bit at her reaction, he slips off of his seat and grabs one of the many long needles off of the floor and jumps back up on his seat. "I don't think you got what I was meaning when I said immobilize Grandma Piip. I don't want to actually hurt anyone, so it's more like you get poked by a bunch of these—which doesn't even actually hurt at all, I tested it—and get mortal 'tickled' a whole heap. I found a way to simulate it, and it's really kinda fun. When you're expecting it at least. It's a bit different of a feeling to what we do to get muscle laughs, so I didn't want you thinking that something bad was happening."

Piipa looks at Sör, stunned speechless for a moment. Clearing her throat, she just looks at him another moment before a stifled laugh escapes her mouth. "Kiddo," she begins, trying to hold in a bout of laughter, recovering rapidly from the strange shock. "You, you're really not a violent person huh?"

"Uhm," Sören looks at her worriedly while he responds. "No? I don't really like to be unless I have to. Are you alright, Piip? You didn't get poked did you?"

Snorting with laughter now, Piipa shakes her head. "Nope. But-" she tries to stifle her laughter again, "can-can I just laugh at this whole thing? Without you getting upset with me?"

Looking at his youthful grandmother strangely, he nods. "Well, sure. I guess. What's so funny though? I don't really get it."

"You-" she laughs loudly, tears building up while she smiles radiantly. "You were getting picked on, and your last line of defence,  _defence_  Sör, was to  _tickle them_!"She bursts out laughing once more, infecting Sören a bit as he watches.

"Oh. Yeah," the boy chuckles to himself. "I suppose you're kinda right about that."

"Oh, don't ever change kiddo. You're much more fun than those oldie Immortals like this." Piipa sighs, wiping a pale teal coloured tear from one of her eyes. "That is the best revenge and selfdefense plot I have ever heard about in my entire existence. And I've been around for longer than you can even imagine yet, kiddo." She grins and messes with his hair a bit again, smiling wider as he tries to move her hand away again.  _Finally, acting more like himself. Instead of this scared and defensive child he's had to play as._ Frowning ever so slightly for the space of half a second, Piipa suddenly recalls how he had been carefully putting his sentence together about his vortex. With a soft sigh, she teasingly pinches his cheek and gives him a bemused look. "Now, something tells me you weren't telling me the whole truth about the spherical vortex you made and what it does if you try to force your way through it. But something tells me that you aren't going to be very willing to give me the entire truth about it."

"Uhm. Yeah—yes, I meant. I'm... Well I told you all of the important things. I think." He grimaces a bit, noting how suspicious that actually sounded. "And you said it before, I'm a terrible lier."

"Hmm, I did say something like that earlier, didn't I?" She nods, but doesn't look even the slightest bit derailed. Strumming her fingers on her seat, she grins mischievously. "But I bet I can give you some... incentive to tell me." 

Raising an eyebrow, Sören sits back in his seat a bit. "Ah, right. I'm sure you can. You're very good at that. So, do you really need to know? Because, it's not really that important I don't think."

"You're pretty awesome Sören, and you make really incredible things. I hope you know that. And I also hope you know that what you create, makes me incredibly curious. I didn't think it up—which is not something that many other Immortals can do. To create something that I never thought up before them at some point. So I really do, honestly and sincerely, want to know what it is you've really created. What you have brought into my realm of Reality. Whether or not I can use it." Piipa grins and pokes his nose softly. "What do you say? Would you tell this ancient Immortal what you thought up out of nothingness?"

"Greatest Grandma Piip..." Sören starts slowly. "You do know that I'm not going to tell you just because you're giving me sweet talk, right?" He grins and chortles to himself as the elder Immortal looks at him in surprise.

"Well, you're not gullible at least. But I wasn't kidding, Sör. Your ideas are original. The most original I've seen in ages. You do genuinely make me curious." She shrugs. "I'm not going to lie about it. I don't hand out fake complements to get answers out of people, kiddo. That's not my style, and a fairly low thing to do in the first place."

Nodding slowly, Sören finally shrugs and with a sigh, begins explaining. "So that vortex is like a teleportation system. Only it determines your destination by rolling a dice with a couple billion sides, each of which keep changing faster than you can see. You probably made the concept forever ago, I know. But I thought that it was stupid unless you felt like getting totally lost somewhere for a while. Which you also probably did. But like I said before: that is totally a waste of good potential. So I went to that planet I named 'Earth' that I made with you and Mum back when I was one and a half centuries old. The one that you helped me speed up through the boring bits with the time-cleaver. And even more when I accidentally hit a pebble into and killed off those things I decided to call dinos? Yeah that one. Well I went to hang out with some friends I made down there, because they don't ever talk about stuff like I do, and it helps me calm down and relax. And they were talking about how it would be 'cool if someone could make a portal that could take you wherever you wanted to go and you only had to think about it' which was a funny thought. But then one of the others said 'but there are some places you could accidentally think about and end up where you really didn't want to go at all. Or think of a place like one of those massive deserts that you could actually get lost in if you don't know  _exactly_ where you're trying to get there. So you would need codes for specific places like cities or towns.'

"And then it just hit me, you know? Not  _actually_ hit me, the idea suddenly popped into my head and—okay that was off topic. You probably knew all about that. Forget that last bit. Anyways, this idea suddenly exploded from this conversation and I thought _why not make something like that out of that nonsense_ —erm, I mean, random dice portal— _and force it to be able to give me certain outcomes when I input specific 'codes?'_ So I did. I left then and there and came back to draw up some plans. Which were a pain, let me tell you Grandma Piip. You created this portal that—as soon as you even barely come in contact with the outer edges of it—boots you somewhere you aren't sure you really know where you are, or if you can even get back before something bad happens! It was an incredibly annoying project to attempt at the beginning. Until I realized that you probably made this when you were bored with things that made sense! The portal is specifically designed to mess a little bit with your reality until someone who could create the chaos and deconstruction of reality that would balance you, actually showed up.

"So I stopped for a moment, thought about what I could do to make a portion of chaos bend to do what I wanted to do, and I had the most _insane_ idea. I—"

"Whoa there Sören." Piipa chuckles and breaks in to the youngling's monologue. "Don't forget to breathe alright? Now that's super cool, but you've never told me that you've actually visited one of the planets we made together. Have you been doing this for very long?"

"Well, yeah actually. I go there whenever I'm bored with a project, or I need some other kind of distraction, or I'm mad at someone. But not when someone is after me. I don't think that going there would do much besides get the planet destroyed or taken by someone. That's kinda the reason that I  _haven't_ told anyone that I go there to 'hang out and chill.'" He pales suddenly. "You... you wouldn't tell anyone or take it would you?" 

"Pfft. No way kid." She raises an eyebrow at him. "Do get drift terrors about stuff like this? Or was this just another one of your thoughts that go into the 'scare box' you keep?"

Sören's face goes from a ghostly white, to beet red in an instant. "That- what _\- scare_ box- _NO_!" He waves his hands in front of himself, dropping the needle he had been fiddling with to the side. "What are you even talking a-about?"

 "Sören," Piipa begins, looking the youngling levelly in the eye, "I know you, and because I know you, I am well aware that some of the drifts you have are likely to end up as the 'scary' type."

"You don't really know that. You're just saying it to try and make me admit to something that's... really not true!" Sören responds, folding his arms and glaring at the pile of needles on his left as he fails to lie convincingly once again.

"...I own the realm of reality, kid. I know a few things." She pauses and glances up a little ways, then quirks a gentle smile. "But it also helps that you have a box specifically labelled 'drift scares' up on the shelf behind you. But back to your story of how you made the spherical portal with a whole heap of locks to go on it."

 Sören pulls out a bit of scrap looking fabric, tosses it behind himself, looking very disgruntled as it flies through the air, lengthening and expanding before attaching itself to to shelf where the embarrassing box resides. With a heaving sigh, Sören sits up straight again and clears his throat. "Right. So basically you created a vortex-portal that is designed to minutely destroy reality. And because of that, it makes no sense. It's not the kind of thing you can solve with logic, since none actually applies. The thing will suck you in if you as much let a strand of hair touch it, and will spit you out somewhere while you're entirely disoriented. So I had this ridiculously insane plan to hug it."

"So you went up to my Portex of Randis... and  _hugged it?_ _"_ Piipa looks at him incredulously for a moment. 

"Yeah." He grins and watches Piipa begin to laugh. "I know, it was ridiculous, right? Well it worked."

"Wait, what worked? You never explained what you were trying to accomplish by-" she snorts, " _hugging_ the Portex."

"I held it without getting spat back out somewhere. I mean, the first few times it didn't work at all. Which was pretty much awful. But it was actually not entirely bad, since it only sent me to Ceryse's 'play universe' where everything is hilariously easy to manage and navigate, even if my sister claims that it is her most complex and difficult to manage your way through. Anyways, I figured that I might as well try some experiments so I tried the first time to just hug it. I figured that it wouldn't work, but I figured it would at least be worth trying. It gives me data anyways, so why not right? So that did not work at all, no surprise there, so I moved on to trying out this idea that maybe wearing different materials would allow it to be touched without teleporting whatever was touching it. That failed twenty-some times, until I decided that this hypothesis probably wouldn't work. But since there was still 'probably' in that statement, I would go back to it as a last resort. So I tried a few more things that ended up resulting as totally pointless, before deciding that maybe I was approaching this the wrong way.

"Then I realized something. You had created this 'Portex' of yours, in  against your own realm. Well, mostly at least. And it might possibly be the case at the time, especially so if my speculations on it's 'age' are correct. Because at the time that you made this—and let me know if I am entirely wrong here—Hasekel wasn't round yet. And since—the Immortal of Order, Chaos, and Nature—did not yet exist, order and chaos existed without definite rules or implements set upon them. All of which you wouldn't have been interested in making anyways." Sören gets up and begins pacing as he explains, leaving Piipa listening with a bemused look on her face.  _Kid knows what he's talking about. I wonder how he finds half of the information he ends up getting, most importantly because he's basically been entirely right about_ everything _besides a few details here and there_.

"Hey Sören, not to totally interrupt your long and mighty spiel—which I totally love by the way, it's great and you are ridiculously accurate about pretty much all of it—but how do you even  _know_ half of the stuff you know about exists in the first place? Because you speak about heaps of events, concepts, and more that an Immortal your age shouldn't actually have even heard about yet."

Sören pauses in his pacing to look at Piipa, rather surprised. "Oh." He blinks a few times before continuing. "I thought you would have been informed about it all. Did Deke not tell you then?" 

 "Deke?" Piipa chuckles. "That book-aholic hardly talks to anyone besides her Partner, few Students, and  _occasionally_ whoever she needs some info from about an historic event. Don't get me wrong, she's awesome. Some of her stories are the best. But she really doesn't talk much to anyone, let alone me, myself and I. Why, what's there to know from Deke, kiddo?"

 Sören chuckles a bit before answering. "Well, you're not wrong. She is rather unsociable. But she's been talking to heaps of people recently. Most of them from our newer generations that she's either missed, or wants to watch their development. Either way, I'm surprised she didn't tell you that she took me up as a Student a while back."

The First Immortal's jaw drops, reduced to utter shock. “Sör, are you telling me that you have a _second subdivision._ And because Deke is your Teacher, essentially _no one knows that you have it?_ ”

“Uhm. No? I don’t recall having thought to tell anyone about it. It isn’t that important... Right?” Sören looks up a little bit worried and unsure of himself now.

“Well, it’s not that this is _essential_ to tell to people” Piipa begins, still looking a little flabbergasted but starting to chuckle once again. “But most people let the rest of the Void know that they’re a double subdivision."

Sören just shrugs. “Like I said, I don’t think it’s that important. It’s just knowing more stuff, so what’s the big deal?”

“‘The big deal,’ kiddo, is that very few do it, and many Teachers either don’t see the Student as worthy or committed, or they didn’t want to deal with another Student for a while. Sometimes they don’t accept because they already have an Student. There are a lot of reasons that they could come up with as an excuse to not take on a Student that already has a Subdivision. Plus, Deke doesn’t usually take on Students all that often _anyways._ You must have been an incredibly impressive sight to have had her accept you. That or you had a bribe. Which I doubt unless it was you showing off some of your cool inventions and were going to give it to her anyways.” Piipa looks Sören over for a moment. “Not to get super off track again, but how did you get her to say yes?”

Shrugging again, Sör sighs softly. “I walked into her place, she had set all kinds of tricks and traps up apparently. I just walked right through them all. The puzzles that she had out were easy to solve and occasionally too easy, so I would just deactivate them. Or if I was feeling especially bored, I would rewire them to make them more difficult. There were times where I just switched up everything randomly and tried to solve the face of the puzzle and ignore the details behind it. That made them more fun and sometimes a little more complex.

"In any case, I was there to ask about using her librar- _Library (_ sorry, Deke) if I couldn’t become her Student. I'm still not entirely sure why she demands you say 'Library' all respectful as though it were some all powerful entity or something though, that's a little strange. But it’s not like she was my only resource, but she was my best bet at becoming my own resource in the future, you know? You should probably ask her if you want more details. She'll have them stored away somewhere that you can just watch them in her Library. Can I get back to my explanation or do you have any more questions that so  _desperately_ need to answered." Sören grins cheekily up at Piipa who scoffs before smirking at him.

"Well I can get more details from Deke it sounds like, so I have no problem with getting them there. You may continue, youngling."

"I'm not  _that_ young-" Sören starts, then remembers who he's talking to and rolls his eyes. "Okay, maybe compared to  _you_ I am, but I've got a few centuries on my back now. People only call the kids who are only a couple of centuries old  _'younglings.'_ I am  _not_ that young Piip."

"Sure, sure. Anyways, back to your absurdly hilarious story about you hugging, containing, and manipulating my portex." Piipa grins cheerfully, but still Sören winces slightly.

"That was... Kind of harsh Grandma. Makes it sound like I was just being stupid, then stole your stuff." He speaks up softly, glancing at the floor and hesitating before speaking again. "And besides, I didn't even use your Portex of Randis. I haven't touched it since I figured out haw to grab it without getting caught up."

"Oh." Piipa looks at the intelligent being in front of her. _He's quite the innocent and sensitive kid, isn't he?_  "Sorry kiddo. I just meant that you think in ways that I don't, so I find it fun to listen to the fresh perspective. I didn't mean to offend or accuse you of stealing. I don't think I would have cared to much if you had besides thinking to check up on your morals." She teases lightly, pulling his cheek affectionately.

Smiling, the boy sighs softly without noticing, relaxing tension he hadn't noticed building up in his shoulders. "Thanks. Well, back to my 'hilarious' story then?" He grins slightly.

"Yes! Then afterwards you need to tell me what you made with that tiny chip of metal from my sword." Piipa leans down into her chair, getting comfy for the rest of the story while Sören just chuckles.

"Yeah, we'll get to that eventually. Anyways, where was I again?"

"At the part where you were explaining my reasoning for creating the Portex of Randis—most of which is actually correct by the way—as if I didn't know my own reasoning for it." She chuckles and smirks slightly, bemused. "But it's interesting that you could deduce that much. Kudos to you."

"Ah. Right." Sör blushes slightly. Embarrassed and flustered for making such a silly mistake as to think he had to explain to the  _creator of the Portex_  her own reasoning for making it, but was still pleasantly surprised at his noted accuracy. "We'll, m-moving on from that, I tried an assortment of different ways to approach it until I decided to stop being in such a hurry and just sat down in front of it. I eventually stopped thinking so much and started to  _listen_."

"Listen?" Piipa raises a brow curiously. "What do you mean by-"

"Let's leave questions until later, yeah Greatest Grandma Piip? We'll never get through it all like this." Sören watches as Piipa gives him a breifly startled look, then nods. The young Immortal smiles. "Thanks. So I started listening, and although it was hard to make sense of what was really being said, the feeling carried over from the chaotic energy of the Portex however was not so hard to understand. It was confusion and loneliness. I reasoned that you had given the Portex of Randis a small conscience that grew over the ages. After carefully listening, I realized that the Portex had one day, mutedly questioned by itself—while I was trying to figure out how to hug it—why it was so often alone while I wasn't there? As well as: why couldn't it be touched? After I discovered this, I imagined what it would be like to have no friends or family that you could talk to. Then if you couldn't actually be heard when you were talking, or couldn't actually receive a hug in the first place? I got up then, and decided to try something that was probably a little crazy considering that the Portex doesn't actually have a full consciousness. I thought about comforting a friend or family member, then gave it a hug. And it worked. I touched it, and it became solid. I didn't teleport to any random place, I just hugged it and sent it calming energy."

"... You're kidding." Piipa says after a moment.

"Uhm, well no actually. I'm not." Sören shrugs, not especially perturbed by Piipa's disturbed reaction, only minorly disappointed. "This is why I don't usually tell people about my projects. They either think I'm messing with them or—"

"No, Sören. I'm not talking about what you did and how it happened. I fully believe you there. I just didn't think that I had created another mind within the Portex. I hadn't meant to." She adds kind of sadly as she looks down at the pile of tickling needles that still rest on the floor. "I didn't want to create something that would be stuck and not be able to move or converse while it wanted to."

Sören walks right up to her and puts a hand on her shoulder, causing her to look up at him. "It's not your fault, Grandma Piip. And the Portex is actually doing alright now. I made it some company." He smiles confidently at the First Immortal.

"..." Piipa blinks a few times up at the kid.  _You know, I'm not sure why I'm still even surprised at this kid's abilities anymore. He more often than not shows capabilities that will grow to go far beyond my own. Of course the kid figured out what was going on with the Portex of Randis while not even he himself had suspected there was something going on with the portal-void itself. This was the kind of thing he just loved to do. He did things to help people, even when he was feeling down in the dumps himself._ With a soft chuckle, the First Immortal nods slowly. "Of course you have, kid." She speaks softly. "You always have been the type to try and help those who needed help."

The youngling shrugs. "I know that I certainly wouldn't want to be left alone and unable to interact with the Void around me as well as those within it. Back to the story though. I figured out how to touch it without vanishing and popping up somewhere else, so I made it come company from a couple materials that I had on hand, uhm, those specific materials... they a-aren't, ah, important. But I used them and created an energy being similar to the Portex of Randis. I just copied a couple different energy frequencies that the Portex had, added a few of my own which I knew would be positive and hopefully a good influence on the Portex. I had to try a couple different variations to make sure it would be stable on it's own before giving it a conscious that could match your Portex's. They're good friends now, and neither of them are lonely." Sören smiles fondly. "They're super funny too. I still hand out with them from time to time. They help me with puns. Because puns are the best."

Piipa snorts with laughter at that. "You, little Immortal, are a rather surprising and...  _punny_ guy."

Sören bursts into laughter with his Greatest Grandma. "That," he shakes his head with a grin, "was  _sea_ -reiously terri- _bubble_ , Piipa."

With a smirk, the First Immortal returns the challenge. "Oh,  _shore_ it was. Yours were  _barley_ any better."

" _Ink_ - _seed_ it  _wash_ , Piipa. But what can I  _sleigh_? Puns are just one of my..."

"Oh no, here it comes." Piipa grins widely.

" _S_ _eashell_ -ieties." After a moment of silent, both Piipa and Sören crack up laughing. 

"Kid," Piipa starts, wiping a tear from all of her laughing. "You are pretty decent at those puns."

"Thanks. I try." Sören chuckles, his chest heaving as he slowly calms down.  _You could say that I'm_ 'claming'  _down. Heh heh..._ With a deep breath, he smiles contently and gets back on his stool. "Okay, I'm getting bored telling this story with so many interruptions. So I'll wrap this up quick so that I can show you what I accidentally did with that shard from your sword."

"Ah yes," Piipa smiles and nods. "The question that inspired the rest. Lets go! Story time is back on!"

Sören snickers slightly before starting up again. "So I got a sample from the Portex—obviously with consent, what kind of a person do you think I am Piipa? honestly—and I brought it back, expanded the basics of it, grew the parts that were either lacking or missing most, and grew the rest of it. After I did that, I vamped it up a bit, moulding it how I figured would function and exist best. It was probably good that I was looking for signs of consciousness, because I found them, and gave the consciousness purpose, as well as a way to contact the other two I had just left behind to hang out together. So through all of this, I established a trust between myself and this new Portal-Vortex. We are friends too now, and they help me with keeping people out. That's how I'm able to make sure that everyone is put where I mean for them to go, rather than having them randomly sent to anywhere, as well as keeping them out. It all works out well in the end. So! Now that we've finished up with that 'story,' you wanted to know about what I made right?"

Piipa grins. "You bet I do! You mentioned something about an accident that was involved with making something. What was going on there?"

"Well this is another really long story, but I think that I'm going to just jump straight to the point this time. That'll be way more fun. So there were a lot of accidents that happened which lead up to this moment. First of all, I accidentally broke your sword. "He frowns. "I really am sorry about that. I had absolutely no intention of breaking it. I was actually only practicing with it. Helps me get out of my head a bit, and it's a fairly heavy sword which means I have to really focus on what I'm doing instead of my thoughts.

"Anyways, I was practicing after having failed this one experiment of attempting to make a material with similar attributes to the Inheritance. Only it doesn't give you answers, it only changes shape and what it's made of at will." The boy shrugs. "It sounded like a fun project when I started, but it was much more difficult than I had initially thought it to be. And don't laugh! I'll stop telling you the story if you keep laughing at me." Sören grumbles and grumps a bit as Piipa stifles a couple more chuckles quickly. "Anyways, I figured that it would be easier to make without the omnipotence factor, but it was just missing something every time I tried a new test. My last experiment was still out, the materials that I was using were all combined and laying out in that spiral shaped container," he lifts a hand and gestures behind himself, "over there somewhere.

"So I picked up the sword that you had leant me, and I started messing around. It's not like I leave much out that could actually get damaged, and even if it is, I have things that will move them automatically out of the way. Only, I forgot that I had left some of my needles suspended in the air and that I had instructed them not to move anywhere unless I told them to. So naturally, I just ran into them. But since it is  _tickling_ that these needles simulate, my body kinda spasmed like it would if I were using a human glamour. And I dropped the sword mid-swing."

"You didn't." Piipa says in a hushed tone. Her eyes wide, enthralled with the story and it's unintended suspense. "What happened?"

"Well," Sören chuckles lightly and rubs the back of his neck. "When I said mid-swing, I meant that I was swinging the sword up. Above my head. So it went up a ways enough for me to recover and notice that it was plummeting right towards me, blade edge first. So I reacted. I don't know exactly what I did, but there was a bright white light that came out of nowhere when I went to try and dodge, even though I knew that I couldn't possibly get away in time. But when I could finally open my eyes and see properly again, the sword laid in pieces around me. But a tiny sliver had fallen into my concoction. And the craziest thing yet, was that it completed the recipe. As soon as I noticed this, the reaction was instantaneous. Everything happened so fast I can't remember all of it. But in the end, the not-quite-Inheritance merged with me." He lifts up his shirt over his head to show the swirling tattoo like images moving over his skin. "... And that's what happened to the little bit of your sword." He smiles apologetically. "Tada!" Sören adds somewhat weakly.

Piipa examines the 'not-quite-Inheritance' for a moment. "...That is really impressive Sör." She speaks softly. "And," she adds more boisterously, "also  _incredibly_ cool. Congrats on the success, kiddo. Don't get into too much trouble there. And make sure to be careful."

"So, you're not entirely mad at me?" Sören asks hesitantly.

"Mmm," she thinks for a moment. "Not especially. Besides almost getting yourself killed or severely hurt. That I am a little bit irked about, but other than that, you're in the clear. Besides, it's not like you were  _trying_ to get yourself killed or otherwise. Just try a little harder to look after yourself." Piipa grins and messes with his hair again.

"Hey!" He laughs and tries to fix his hair once more. "You know I wasn't kidding about that thing with my mum. She will actually go a tiny bit crazy over my hair if she see's it's like this." He remarks somewhat nervously.

"You'll be fine. Besides, I bet you could distract her with your not-quite-Inheritance you've got not. You might even trip her up into thinking you actually  _do_ have an Inheritance. Now  _that_ would be hilarious. In fact, lets go do it now! I'll hide my presence and watch in the background, okay?"

Sören grins mischievously as he puts his shirt back on. "Oh, this is going to be so much fun. You'd better bail me out if she starts to totally freak out on me thought. Deal?""

"Oh you bet kiddo."

And with that, the pair left the workshop, plotting and planning for the soon to be attempted prank.


	2. Quý-ah and Charles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Quý-ah (pronounced loosely as kwey-ah incase anyone was wondering) is a rather intense child, Charles (her father) is pretty cool but doesn't always know how to handle her on his own without his wife who has a rather special background, so his daughter mostly figures out a way to pick and win her battles. But that's not because Charles is a pushover, mind you. Because he is definitely not unless he can see ultimate reason to an argument.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more short story! Pretty sure this is way shorter than the last one. 
> 
> Just a heads up, Charles is the accidental head of a mafia family he and his best friend Amais started (it was not originally a mafia group). Quý-ah is a curious and intellectual child who just wants to know the truth about everything.
> 
> Enjoy!

“Dad,” Quý-ah walks into her father’s office and study, a worn stuffed rabbit in hand, and her shoulder length silver-blonde hair swaying slightly with each step, fringe hovering over her eyebrows.

“Yes, my little gem?” Charles’ deep voice rumbles affectionately towards the child.

“... Who is my mum?” Charles looks away from a couple of papers in his hands to Quý-ah in surprise. ”You never answered me with a real answer of WHO she actually is, I don’t even know her name or what she’s like; and I… I was wondering,” Quý-ah fidgets for a couple of moments.

“You’ve been thinking…?” Charles prompts, his brow furrowing slightly with worry and concern, as he places the papers in his hands on his desk, and swiveling his chair to face his daughter.

“Am I actually adopted?” The little six year old blurts out after a pause that lasted a little too long; now looking down at her toes and hugging her stuffed pink floppy rabbit tightly. 

Charles’ looks at his daughter in shock, then recovers quickly, looking down at his trembling daughter softly. “No, oh my dearest little girl,” he motions to the guards by the doors in his large ‘office’ to leave, “raise your head, you’re not in trouble for asking or for being afraid. I’m sorry you came to that conclusion like you must have. Come here, little one.” The remorseful father opens his arms to pull Quý-ah up into his lap.

The young child looks up at him with tear filled deep purple and gold flecked eyes, and responds by running into his arms and sobbing into his chest. “I-I’m sorry daddy, I w-w-wasn’t going to cry but I c-can’t stop--”

Charles holds the child close, kissing her forehead and rubbing her back soothingly. “It’s alright sweetie, I’m sorry for making you cry. But hey,” he taps her cheek so she looks up to him. “Guess what.”

“... W-what?” Quý-ah rubs the tears out of her eyes, hiccupping a little as she recovers from crying.

He chuckles softly. “You, little one of mine, are most definitely _not_ adopted, first of all. And second, your mother is someone very precious to me. Just like you are.”

She grabs a tissue from his desk and wipes away her runny nose, then looks up at him hesitantly. “Are you sure?”

He smiles. “Of course! But she isn’t able to be here a lot of the time because she is a very important person with a very important job, which is also why I didn’t ever tell you her name. Because if the wrong people found out who your mother really is, then you would be in a lot of danger, and not very happy anymore because of it.”

Quý-ah mulls this over for a minute. “... Daddy, do you think that mummy loves me still, like you do?”

“You bet your cute little nose she loves you just as much as I do, little one.”

“Can I see her some time?”

“Can you see her…?” Charles thinks about it for a moment. “I think that she’ll probably come to visit you when you’re a bit older. Probably when you turn fourteen years old I think.”

Quý-ah sits up tall and smiles excitedly. “Dad! Does that mean that I can know her name now?” She bounces a little on her knees, hugging her toy rabbit with all of her might.

“Well, I did say that it was dangerous to know even her name right?”

The hopeful girl pauses to remember, then droops a little and frowns ever so slightly. “Oh. Yeah, you did.” She slumps and bumps her forehead onto her father’s chest and sighs. “When do I get to know her name then?”

“Hmm… That’s a tricky one, my little gem.” Charles leans back in his chair and tips his head back, looking up at the sky through the massive skylight that occupies the majority of the enormous room’s ceiling.

“Hmm…” Quý-ah mimics her father, even furrowing her brows like he usually does when thinking hard.

The two sit there quietly for a tranquil half hour, thinking, and waiting for the other to maybe say something else.

“AH!” Quý-ah sits up suddenly and shouts, startling Charles who had almost fallen asleep.

“Whoa!” He jumps awake and looks around blearily, focusing on his daughter as she laughs at him, holding onto an armrest of the chair with one hand and trying to stifle her laughter with the other.

“You- you’re super funny dad.”

He chuckles and slowly relaxes into his seat again. “Oh really? Do you think that it could be my superpower?”

“Yup! But it’s the silliest one. It makes all of the bad guys forget what they were doing, and laugh at how silly and funny you are.” She giggles cheekily, laughing at her own comment and teensy jab at her father.

“Hey, surely you jest princess! I don’t think I’m _that_ silly.” He chuckles and pinches her nose teasingly, to which she just sticks her tongue out him. “What were you shouting about earlier anyways? You were so loud you woke me up before I could even actually fall asleep.”

“Oh! Yeah that one.” She giggles. “It’s my secret plan. I can’t tell you though. It’s this big of a secret.” Quý-ah sets down her toy and stretches her small little arms out as far as they will go. “See?”

Charles _oohhhs_ softly. “I see. It must be a really important plan then.” Quý-ah nods seriously. “Well then, I’ll leave you to it. But tell me if you need anything for it, alright? I’ll do my best to help my little Quý-ah out with her plan.”

Quý-ah beams and hugs her dad around the neck. “Thanks Dad.”

“You’re welcome, little gem of mine.” He hugs her back and kisses her cheek before she jumps off of his lap, bringing her stuffed animal with her.

“I’ll go tell Amias that it’s okay to see you now. Well, maybe in fifteen minutes. He wanted to talk with you a couple minutes ago though. He’s just outside asking about coming in.” She smiles and waves, then turns and skips over to and out the door, leaving Charles on his own, smiling a melancholy smile.

“...But who told you that he would be waiting outside? We’ve been in here together for over a half of an hour.” He looks up again through the clear glass skylight at the puffy,  bright white clouds contrasting with the deep blue sky, and sighs softly. “Gemma, your daughter truly is incredible. She’s just like you. She’ll figure everything out on her own, sooner than I can distract her with a whole book of sudoku. Although, that wouldn’t last her more than a couple of hours, as of that fact, I’m sure you know. The last one I gave her was finished in an hour and a half.” He chuckles softly. “Well, do look after her where I can’t, alright? I just want her safe and happy.”

A soft and faint sound of coins dropping on each other echos through the air and a cheerful woman with elegant features and dress appears, sitting with one leg crossed over the other on Charles’ desk, arms casually resting slightly behind to support her torso. “Hello Dearest.” She smiles earnestly and innocently, her loosely curled, waist long, silver-blonde hair shimmering in a beam of sunlight breaking through the clouds.

Charles chuckles softly. “Why hello there stranger, do you come here often?” He turns in his chair and looks over at Gemma, pointedly locking eyes with the woman, deep chestnut brown meeting purple and gold speckled.

“Well, I certainly used to.” She tilts her head a little to one side, and glancing down to his hands, notices a thick gold ring with little, purple jewel, outlined spirals. “Awwe, you kept the ring I gave you! You even wear it on your left ring finger like I asked!” She smiles radiantly at Charles, who hums softly in acknowledgement and nods.

Charles scoffs in a mockingly scornful tone. “Of course I did. We got ‘married’ remember?” He tilts his head towards her expectantly, a sly smile and raised eyebrow slowly playing cheekily across his face.

Gemma giggles. “How could I forget?” She places her hands on her knee, right under left, displaying on her ring finger: a beautiful, thin ring of gold and silver veined together, and tiny tiger eye stones set along within the silver. “It was quite the occasion. It is still an often recalled favourite memory of mine.”

“That fact is one of which I am still glad to be reminded of.” Charles quirks a relaxed smile. “Still, it’s not often you drop by. What’s the occasion?” He leans back in his chair.

“Hmm,” she leans back and tilts her head up, soaking in the warm sunlight peeking out behind soft fluffy clouds, “you saw that Quý-ah is starting to rush ahead and jump to her own conclusions about the important things.” It isn't a question. It’s just fact.

The mafia boss sighs, “Yes. I did. She’s a sharp one, and I’m sure she gets it from you. Which must be the reason you’ve dropped in for a visit.”

“Ah,” Gemma looks over at her husband. “Well there you have it. Maybe she actually gets it from you.” She giggles.

Charles looks pointedly at her, suddenly sitting up in a more serious manner. “Gemma, enough with the banter. You aren’t a whimsical or wishy-washy person, no matter how you try to act it out.

The goddess sighs softly. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. After all, I never was ever able to fool you. You’re no fun like that. Nothing works on you.” She chuckles softly, then looks down at him. “You need to let Quý-ah do what she’s planning. Help her even. Especially if you don’t entirely agree.” She starts to smile again. “She’s got a lot going for her, and if you don’t let her explore what her options are now, the future might make a turn for sour, for everyone. Not something I would recommend.”

Charles thinks over this for a moment. “Just how bad would it be?” He asks softly.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the apocalypse and end of the world? I would put this around 8. And then shortly after it would be a 10, for a while until some other Immortal who could do something figured out what happened.”

Charles sighs and leans his head on his hand, covering his eyes. “You’re telling me this because I’m not going to like what she’s about to get herself into, isn’t that right?”

“Wow, you’re good at this Charles!” Gemma giggles, then stretches a hand out to her human husband, cupping his face in her hand gently. “Hey, it’s not all bad. You’ll even be begrudgingly happy because of letting her do this later.

He glances up at her, and gently takes his own hand to cover hers for a moment before pulling it down just to hold. “You said I was one of the few whose futures you couldn’t directly predict.”

She smiles. “That fact remains true: I can’t read your future. I just know _you_ , so I know that you will be happy with this decision later. Mostly.”

Charles glares at Gemma. “This isn’t funny Gem. You can see her future, even if only when you actually put your mind to it. I can’t see jack, but you still love to leave me hanging. This is our daughter that we’re talking about and although you can look after her well enough, that doesn’t mean that I’m magically _not_ going to worry over her. I am human and she is still very much so herself. She isn’t indestructible. Quý-ah is only. Six. _Years_ . Old. _Human years old._  She is only a _child_ . Although I am not going to ask you what the future holds for her, you absolutely can _not_ leave me hanging with some kind of answer that is only there to half assure me that she will be alright. I don’t care what happens to me, but I will not allow anything to happen to my child who doesn’t know her own heritage and is still innocent.”

Gemma looks at him in mild surprise for a moment, the frowns sadly. “I know.” She starts softly, “I’m sorry. I was only teasing. She will be fine, as long as you help her do what she needs to now. I will help her where I can, but as you know my power here is limited presently, as the patron Immortal himself, is missing. So, according to the Laws of Acrinine and my informal permission pact with Soren, I am only mostly limited in power—although more so than usual since he isn’t able to supervise my actions and allow me a higher power limit. But rest assured, Quý-ah will be safe with no life threatening harm to come her way. Not for years in the future. I promise.” Her gentle voice, tender and sincere. “I love my little Quý-ah just as much as you do. I do not wish to lose her either*.”

Charles nods, sighing softly. “Yes, I’m sorry too. I know you were only teasing.” He kisses her hand softly and holds it to his forehead. “I know that you aren’t telling me this information for no reason. And I trust that you’ll keep Quý-ah safe as is possible currently. As for letting her do what she needs to…” he pauses and sighs again. “She… she _is_ only six, so there is no way that I am going to give her free reign for a long while yet. But, I will support her. It has always been clear that she has wisdom beyond her years though, so I won’t become a major hindrance to her growth.” He finishes resolutely and looks up, nodding firmly.

Gemma’s smile slowly returns appreciatively. “Thank you, love.”

He returns a tender smile. “Of course.”

The female Immortal hums softly and looks down at Charles’s watch and chuckles. Slipping off of his desk to stand tall in front of him, her purple and green silk dress smoothly trailing behind, she leans down to whisper in his ear. “Our fifteen minutes are almost up. Amias is getting impatient, so I’ll exit my audience with this mighty mafia boss now.” She grins cheekily and kisses him softly, allowing him to carefully caress her cheek with calloused fingers before breaking off the kiss and standing back up.

“Don’t forget to visit again, Gemma. I get lonely with my wifey gone all of the time.” Charles smiles up at her and absently fiddles with his ring. Gemma grins slyly at him and blows a kiss before snapping her finger and vanishing with the soft, echoey sound of wind chimes.

“Boss!” Amias bursts in irritably, and slightly alarmed with Quý-ah in tow. “Is there any particular reason that you needed a whole fifteen minutes to yourself just now out of the blue?”

“Well actually-”

Charles is cut off swiftly as Amias rapid fires another question, “and when did you decide to allow Quý-ah - your six year old daughter, you know, in case you somehow forgot this fact - to begin learning how to handle _weapons_ and _fight_?” The mafioso glares slightly at the Head, who stares right back at him, and then down at his daughter, in dumbfounded surprise - his mouth still open slightly.

“Amias! You weren’t supposed to tell him yet! That’s the whole point of a surprise.” Quý-ah complains exasperatedly and rolls her eyes.

_Oh good riddance Gemma._ Charles sighs inwardly as Amias and Quý-ah begin to argue, _you could have at least_ warned _me that she would want to start_ today _you know?_ He shake his head, sits up tall and authoritative, then calmly begins to diplomatically sort the dilemma out. 


	3. Sören, TJ, and Quý-ah.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> These three dorks meet! They're honestly my adorable babies and I feel bad for putting them in these awful situations before and throughout these situations, but it builds who they are, and in the end, that's what make our individual stories ours: no one is ever going have the same exact experiences as you, but no one's story is going to be totally clean and happy. That's part of what makes the good parts that much better.
> 
> Also: yes these children know how to work with weapons. They've all grown up realizing that they'll be safer knowing how to handle a few sharp toys. :•)

TJ walks down the lamp lit street, heading to the meeting point that she and Sören had previously decided on. “Sören?” she whispers softly, trying not to be overheard by anyone who could potentially be listening as she walks down the back alley.

“Sup?” Sören walks out casually from behind the dumpster and waves with a smile. “Did you get everything? “

“Well obviously I did. What do you take me for?” She grins and sets the bags down. “Although I still don’t understand why you had to make yourself known through stealing in this town. Or why we had to come back here in the first place. What does a ‘gut sense’ have to do with figuring out what we need to do next to get all of your memories back? Plus the fact that that mafia guy is hunting us down for no apparent reason. I don’t want to be caught here, which I’m sure could happen since he found us here before.”   
Sören shrugs. “I don’t really get it either. But I couldn’t escape this feeling that if we didn’t come back here right now, I wouldn’t get my memories back, at all. So I decided to show back up.” He pauses then smirks, ”although I did say that you didn’t have to come along. Who was the one who said I wouldn’t even know how to find my way back without getting discovered?”

TJ rolls her eyes. “Very funny. Even still, if I weren’t here, you would have been discovered while trying to get the rope, knife, and food. So there.” She grins triumphantly.

“Yeah, sure sure. Whatever.” He rolls his eyes.

“My win. So what is it that we’re waiting for anyways? Do you know?”

“Probably for me, actually.” A new voice speaks up from above the tall buildings, a girl’s frame silhouetted by the setting sun.

Sören unzips his leather jacket, his fingers carefully splayed and ready to grab whatever he needs quickly, as TJ pulls out her knives. “And who might you be?” Sören asks casually.

The silhouette jumps down, landing softly in front of them - off by about ten meters back - in the shadows. “I just might so happen to be the one person that you needed to meet up with.”

“How about you step into the light then?” TJ starts off, speaking clearly. Her presence becoming staggeringly powerful and almost menacing, old habits from living off in the streets automatically kicking in. “Starting a conversation out of the blue with some sketchy stranger isn’t exactly a favourable situation. And it’s not going to help us trust you in the slightest. That’s for sure.”

The stranger sighs, exasperated. “Fine. But you have to promise not to try and attack or anything. That’d be both really dumb, and annoying.”

“What-”

“Sure.” Sören interrupts Jay’s skeptical response. “Let’s call it a truce. You don’t attack, and we won’t unless provoked or attacked first.” He gives Jay a meaningful glance and she backs down, sliding a few of her knives away again, still on guard.

“Smart. Sounds fair enough. I will hold you to that truce.” The girl steps out into the dingy back alley light and light from the almost full moon; revealing her small form. Her shoulder length silver-blonde hair, dirty blue baseball cap shading her eyes, side clipped belt holding knives, two pistols, and long sword giving her an almost ominous presence. Her red tank-top with a written ‘you mad bro?’ exposing the mafia signia tattoo on her right shoulder, shadowed slightly by the red and orange backpack straps over her shoulders..

“You’re with them?!” Taylor-Jay almost screams, gritting her teeth as Sören moves his arm in front of her so she doesn’t attack. The mafiosa just sighs and rolls her eyes.

“Care to explain why we are supposed to trust you, while you are part of the group after us?” Sören calmly asks, trying to make out the girl’s eyes and create eye-contact.

“Of course.” She replies briskly, a smile ghosting slightly on her face at Sören’s response, and mutters softly under her breath. “You’re just like she said you would be Sören.”

“Sorry, what was that?” He asks dumbly, looking surprised and confused. “Who said anything about me?”

“Never mind that, I’ll go back to it in a bit after introductions.” The girl smiles again and continues, “My name is Quý-ah. Spelled ‘Q’ ‘U’ accented ‘Y’ dash ‘A’ ‘H’ and pronounced like ‘KWEH-AH’ in case you didn’t catch that the first time I said it. I am the daughter of the boss of the mafia group you think is after you. You are only mostly wrong by that assumption, just so you are aware. I am here because I have the list of items you need, in order to get your memories back. And,” Quý-ah grins and tips her hat up, revealing her eyes: deep purple with gold flakes glinting, scattered throughout her iris, staring right into Sören’s eyes. “I’ll be staying with you a while because I’m the only demigod daughter of Gemma, First Generation Immortal.”

Sören staggers, eyes wide before suddenly snapping shut, and holds his head. Taylor-Jay grabs him and keeps the teen standing. “What… what did you do to him?” TJ asks, while carefully helping Sören to the ground, leaning him on the wall behind.

“Uhm, nothing actually.” Quý-ah frowns, looking at the frozen teen worriedly. “I was actually just messing around with a dramatic introduction since I’ve always wanted to do that to someone who I can talk to about Immortals. Do you mind if I…?” She takes a tentative step towards them and gestures to Sören.

TJ hesitates, looks at Sören who she’s kneeled down beside her, then back to the young mafiosa, who unclips her belt and carefully puts it on the ground along with the backpack. The brown haired girl sighs. “Alright. Try anything funny though, and I will not hesitate to attack.”

“I know.” Quý-ah says solemnly and quickly moves over to them. She kneels down and places her palm in the center of Sören’s forehead, then starts to whisper to him. “Sören, relax. Let the memory find it’s place in your mind again. It’s not something that you can’t handle. You can do it. We believe in you.” 

The strawberry-blond shudders, then relaxes. His hands leaving his face and shoulders relaxing as he slowly opens his eyes again, the usual electric orange now gone. His left eye shimmering gold, the right displaying a deep red.

“Oh.” The two girls mumble in sync, staring at the partially awakened Immortal.

“Uhm. Hi again?” Sören looks between them both. “... Why’re you both staring at me? I mean I know that I look spectacular regularly, but you’re actually giving me some pretty funny looks right now.” He chuckles and trails off awkwardly, only his voice carrying his discomfort in the situation.

“Well...” TJ starts.

“Your eyes have changed colours.” Quý-ah inserts bluntly.

“Nuh-uh.” Sören looks between the girls again, a grin creeping up on his face. “That’s way cool. You’re not pulling on my leg here are you?”

“Nope.” TJ snorts. “How the heck are you so calm about all of this? Like, your eyes just freaking changed colour, and you just take it in stride.”

“Actually,” Quý-ah begins slowly, clearly thinking her idea through as she speaks. “It might be because this is how he was before he was stuck here.”

“Maybe. It feels pretty normal to be honest.” Sören shrugs. “And I feel pretty light right now. Almost like I could float. I think anyways.”

Quý-ah giggles lightly and stands up, offering a hand to the teen. “Well don’t go floating away on us, trapped Immortal. That would be bad.”He grins and clasps his hand around her forearm, letting her help him up.

TJ stands easily on her own, frowning a little. “But why did your eyes change at all? I’m nothing fancy like an Immortal or a demigod, but I don’t see why they changed colour. It seems too random and out of place.”

“Hey, you’re the First Apprentice! That’s totally fancy TJ!” Sören pouts a little and folds his arms, narrowing his eyes at the street smart young woman beside him.

“TJ, have you ever thought about why Sören actually had legitimately orange eyes?” Quý-ah asks after a moment, ignoring Sören’s outburst.

“Not really? He’s always been a weirdo though. No offence man.”

“None taken. Besides that last comment of yours at least. Ish.” Sören chuckles. “But I  _ have _ wondered that about myself. No one else in my family had them. And later on I kinda just chalked it up to some kind of whacked up mutation. It’s what everyone else did too so I played along. That’s the ‘normal’ thing to do and that’s what is encouraged for kids so that their parents don’t think that they’re totally ruining their kids right?” He shrugs.

“Yikes. You figured out that you aren’t originally a human, and used to be an Immortal, but you never thought to question stuff like this again?” Quý-ah giggles. “That’s just funny you know.”

Sören scratches the back of his head and chuckles softly. “Well… I’ve been pretty busy since then. Kinda.” His eyes start slowly fading back to orange.

“Yeah, pretty much. Ish.” TJ adds, trying not to laugh. With a quick glance to Sören, the young woman opens her mouth more seriously, while still grinning curiously. “Hey Sor, is there some miraculous way you can do crazy Immortal stuff since your eyes are all glowey?”

“Uhm,” Sören looks at Taylor-Jay rather caught off guard. “Maybe? I’m not really sure what to try or what my superpower limits are.” He makes a ‘I don’t really have any clue’ gesture with his shoulders and hands before suddenly cringing and adding, “but, I also don’t know what might happen to my body since I’m still pretty human right now. At least I think I’m still mostly human. I am mostly human still right?”

“Yeah.” Quý-ah responds instantly with conviction to the other’s surprise. “What?” She responds defensively, noticing their reactions. “You two don’t think that I actually have no idea of what it’s like to be in a full-fledged Immortal’s presence or something?”

“Well actually,” TJ scratches her arm awkwardly. “I just didn’t really expect that you would know? I mean, you’re just a kid right?”

The mafiosa gives her a deadpan look as she responds. “Yup, I’m nine years old.” She throws her hands up in the air. “Oh my gosh, I’m fourteen years old and therefore am no longer a kid! I. Am. A. Teenager!  _ Thank you very much! _ But aside from that,” she continues, fuming. “Not that I really know of any other legitimate demigods, I still doubt that they would be told their heritage until they were deemed strong enough to deal with the community who remembers their creator, and want anything or  _ anyone _ who have connections to the beings to experiment, worship, et cetera. Or unless their Immortal parent really hated them. Which would suck.” She closes her eyes and takes a few deep breaths, ending with a sigh, calming herself before looking back at the two in front of her. “Sorry. All the same though, I have met my mother once, and fairly recently at that. She’s great. And she explained a lot of things about Immortals to me so I could help Sören out. Most of that information would make those crazies who are after Immortals and their Relics—or rather, Sören here’s relics and people like me—find my value higher than money.” 

Sören and TJ look at each other, rather overwhelmed and taken off guard. “Oh.” Sören looks back to Quý-ah with newfound respect. “Sorry. That’s actually really hardcore. Are you okay? That sounds like a lot to have to deal with.”

Quý-ah raises an amused eyebrow at Sören. “Yeah. I’m mostly alright. I had a couple run ins with the cult who wants my blood for psychotic reasons on my way here, but I dealt with them well enough.” She shrugs rather nonchalantly, her face resting neutrally.

“Uhm, sorry again, but I’m not buying it. You’re clearly no child, but that’s a lot for anyone to deal with. Especially if you haven’t any break time to come to terms with it.” Sören looks at her with genuine concern and loosely lifts his arms out to her, “need a hug?”

“Wait, what?” TJ interjects, but is totally ignored by Sören as he watches Quý-ah tense up in shock.

“It’s alright.” Sören speaks softly, holding steady eye contact. “You don’t always have to be tough. And any kid of Gemma’s is a friend of mine. From what I remember of her, she is fairly gentle and kind, but can be really intense.” More surprise registers on the mafiosa’s face as Sören continues. “She probably left quickly, not being able to answer all of your answers, else someone notices her presence and immediately locks in on you, huh?”

Quý-ah unfreezes and her face contorts in attempt to hold back her building emotions. “How…” she begins hoarsely. “How did you know… about  _ any  _ of that? She said that no one would know the details of what happened.”

Sören smiles softly, his eyes still fading, at a snail’s pace, into their electric orange again. “Hey, I don’t know any details. I just have a gut sense of what likely happened. But…” he hesitates before gesturing for Quý-ah to come over to him. “It’s okay to be overwhelmed by all of this. It’s not a bad thing to need to cry.”

Something visibly shifts in Quý-ah’s expression before she rushes forward and begins bawling in Sören’s chest. He hugs her carefully and runs his hand over her head and hair, ending with tracing slow circles over her back. “It-it’s n-n-not fair!” The young girl hiccups as she cries and tries to talk. “I-I wanted to be with her for longer! Why did she have to j-just dump this st-st-stuff on my shoulders and h-hug me and leave! I didn’t see her or e-even know who she w-was! F-for  _ fourteen years!”  _ She continues sobbing, trembling both with rage and misery in Sören’s arms. “A-and she just dis- _ disappeared!” _

“I know.” Sören murmurs softly. “It must have hurt. I bet it was unbearably painful.” Que-ah’s face, now red from crying, remains in Sören’s shirt while TJ just watches in silence.

_ He makes no sense. _ Taylor-Jay shakes her head in frustration. _ One minute he is this practically stoney and unreadable guy, and the next he’s the big brother that he used to be all those years ago before the town was destroyed. It’s so confusing! What is this guy’s deal? And how does he just  _ know _ this stuff? Just one glance at her and it was like he could see everything. Turmoil, confusion, the facade, the events… It wasn’t even difficult to make her drop every hesitation and breakdown in his arms! _

Her internal conflict is interrupted by Sören’s voice picking up again. “Shhh… Deep breaths. Breath in with me now. That’s it. One, two, three… And out. Let’s do it again…” TJ watches, intrigued and thoroughly confused, as he runs through the breathing pattern seven more times, effectively calming her down and smiling at the end. “There. Feeling better?” 

“Yeah.” Quý-ah responds quietly with a nod. “Thank you.”

“Hey, you betcha.” He continues to smile warmly at her, his eyes becoming their regular striking orange once more. “Any time you need it Quý-ah. I’ll be here for you. Quý-ah nods, wiping her eyes and smiling tiredly.

“Hey, you can’t forget me,” Jay decides to jump in with a grin, covering her disorientation of what she just watched happen. “I’ll always be here too. After all,” she crouches down with a wink. “There’s no such thing as too much girl time.”

Quý-ah’s face pauses with momentary befuddlement, before lighting up with sudden excitement. “You mean like the things girls do together in movies where they just relax and hang out and talk about silly stuff and do each other’s hair? We can do that kind of thing?”

TJ raises a surprised and curious brow. “Yeah, sure. All of that jazz. But what do you mean ‘in movies?’ You haven’t ever done that kind of thing before?” She tilts her head to the side a little as she watches the young mafiosa’s reluctant response.

“Well, no. Not really.” She shakes her head and sighs. “I, uhm. I don’t really have many friends. And I don’t have any siblings either. I spent a lot of time training,” she looks up and notices TJ’s anger beginning to ignite. “Oh but that was my choice! No one forced me into doing that. I just kinda knew that I would need the skills later. So there was always that, but it’s also not exactly easy to make friends when you’re a secret demigod who is also the only daughter of the boss of a pretty powerful and well known mafia.”

Sören nods, pondering. “So you probably haven’t ever  _ really _ been out on the streets by yourself before. Am I right?”

Quý-ah nods reluctantly. “Yeah… What’s your point?” She gives him a weary look.

“Oh. Well, it’s probably nothing, but…” He glances over at TJ then back to Quý-ah. “You…  _ probably _ aren’t supposed to be out on the streets, without hidden body guards, talking to two random teens who are older than you, huh?”

Realization dawns on Jay’s face. “You didn’t run away from home did you?” She asks in horror and slight panic.

“No!” Quý-ah responds quickly. “Oh man, no I didn’t like, have to escape or run away from my dad’s house or something. He knew that this would happen eventually. I mean, he  _ knew _ what my mum was planning. Or, at least, he knew part of it and guessed the rest of it.” She glares at the suspicious looks she’s given. “Give me a break! My mum told me that I had to leave pronto, but I still left a note!”

TJ and Sören regard the girl silently for a moment. Then Sören grins. “I won’t tell your dad if I can come to your girls night or time or whatever you’re going to call it.”

TJ and Quý-ah look at each other for a moment, then back to Sören, before the trio burst out laughing.

“You two are just a couple of goofs aren’t you?” Quý-ah giggles, grinning and holding her stomach. “Well now that I’m not crying and neither of you are at my throat with blood lust, I think we can finally work through introductions  _ properly _ and legitimate questions, I guess. Who wants to go first?”

“I’ll start I guess?” Sören laughs after a brief moment of silence. “Well if you didn’t already know—which would be both strange and kinda confusing unless you had short term memory loss like Dory—I’m Sören, a former Immortal. And, well. I’ve got amnesia. My current favourite food is french fries, and my favourite colour is fluorescent orange. I’m expecting you both to answer similarly.” He grins cheekily.

“Sheesh.” Quý-ah snorts. “You really are a strange one.”

“Tell me about it.” TJ smirks.

“Oh, ouch.” Sören pokes his tongue out good naturedly. “Anyways, I vollentell miss Quý-ah to go next. This is an, uhm, Immortal-y order?” He shrugs, grinning cheekily.

“Well if the great Sören, commands.” Quý-ah mock bows then straightens, relaxed. “As I said before, my name is Quý-ah, I am the daughter of Gemma and Charles—who just just so happens to be the head of our mafia group—and… I guess I like pizza and my favourite colour is pine forest green.” She shrugs and picks up her effects, clipping on the belt and slipping on the backpack.

T.J. looks her over wearily and sighs softly. “I’m T.J. or just Jay if you want. I’ve been living on the streets since I was nine years old, my favourite food is sushi, and my favourite colour is purple. But I’ve got a question for you, Quý-ah.”

“Shoot.” The fourteen year old shrugs. “Just don’t actually shoot me. That’d suck. And that would make you an awful person.” Quý-ah grins slyly.

“Why do you have all those weapons on you and what’s in the bag? Are you keeping us tracked by something in there, or holding a bomb, or what?” TJ asks pointedly, eyes slightly narrowed.

Quý-ah’s eyes widen in surprise, then she buckles over laughing. “Oh-oh my gosh. No!” She snorts out, struggling to breathe. “W-what the heck, is the whole world out to k-kill you or something Jay?”

“Well recently it seems like it.” She responds with a clipped tone.

Quý-ah breathes in deeply to recover, then more serious, responds: “Well I’m sorry that you feel like that. My family doesn’t have  _ that _ much power. Nor would my dad ever  _ want _ that kind of corrupting power. So it’s only what connections that Amias has been manipulated into abusing that are really coming after you right now.” She finishes darkly, kicking a stone at her feet angrily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, let me know what you think and what might need some fixing (none of these ever really get proof read). Constructive criticism is always the best way to go!
> 
> Thanka heaps!  
> ~pS

**Author's Note:**

> If you notice any typos or errors, please let me know. (I don't have time to proofread anything that I put up here so it's entirely plausible that I have made mistakes here and there. I'm only human after all. Probably.) Any questions or concerns please feel free to leave a comment so I can help as best I can.
> 
> I'll likely be back when I have more time to edit this anyways.
> 
> Let me know if anyone wants to read about an interaction between any of the listed characters from above.
> 
> Have an awesome-tastic day! :•)


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